Premier League Betting: Manchester City v Watford

PREMIER LEAGUE BETTING

MANCHESTER CITY v WATFORD

Manchester City have started this season in imperious form, notching up three wins out of three and so far not conceding a single goal. The visit of Premier League new boys Watford will hold absolutely no fear for them.

Key to their good start has been the return to defensive solidity, the form of Yaya Toure and David Silva and the fitness of Sergio Aguero. If Manuel Pellegrini can manage to juggle all those factors and keep the positive, there is no question that City are overwhelming favourites for the league.

On the availability front, it’s also good news for City – only Pablo Zabaleta is missing through injury and other than that Pellegrini has a full-strength squad to choose from.Watford

All told, it’s been a fairly boring start to Premier League life for Watford – three draws, two of those finishing scoreless. I suppose that means that the Hornets are yet to taste defeat in the top flight, and that’s certainly something to build on as we move towards the end of the first month of the season.

One concern for Watford fans is where goals are going to come from. The two they scored against Everton came from Mexican midfielder Miguel Layún, who isn’t a goalscorer generally and the other was scored courtesy of Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo. Ighalo looks a good player and his overall record for Watford is a good one. Quique Sanchez Flores may have to rely on him to make a seamless step up to Premier League football for his side to get enough goals to stay in the division.

Troy Deeney is yet to really get going and Matej Vydra has struggled to hit the back of the net at the top level before with West Bromwich Albion.

Clearly, this is a market loaded in favour of Man City. You’ll get a slender 1.22 on the home side here, and it’s hardly surprising. A lot of people will be wondering how many City can score rather than if they’ll win or not; it’s hard to imagine any result other than a home win.

I think Pellegrini’s side will win this game, but the Match Odds market doesn’t interest me at that price. If you fancy an upset, a massive 17.00 is available on Watford, with The Draw trading at 8.00.

To be fair to Watford, they’ve defended fairly well so far this term, conceding just two goals in their first three games. But, that said, they’ve not faced anything like the calibre of forwards that City possess and it’ll be a real test for them to try and keep Silva, Aguero and the rest at bay. And the market agrees – Over 2.5 Goals is priced up at just 1.41 as punters expect the home team to go to town.

Unders is available at a big 3.20 but will rely on the Hornets being on great form at the back against one of the world’s best forward lines.

The only way we’re going to get a bet worth having here is by looking at the handicap markets. Elsewhere on this site, my colleague Mike Norman is tipping up Man City-2, but I think I’d like a bit of extra insurance so I prefer the -1 option which should be available on the Exchange at around 1.70-ish.